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Boston Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek wipes a tear during his baseball retirement announcement in Fort Myers, Fla., Thursday, March 1, 2012. Varitek says he grappled with the decision for a long time. The Red Sox offered the 39-year-old a chance to come to camp on a minor-league contract, but he declined. He says "the hardest thing to do is walk away from your teammates." (AP Photo/Alan Diaz)

Baseball notebook: MLB pushing hard for an expanded playoff agreement

updated Thursday, March 1, 2012 - 9:55pm

Associated Press

NEW YORK — The Braves are remembered for one of baseball’s epic collapses.

Too bad for Atlanta the playoffs weren’t expanded a year earlier.

Negotiators for baseball players and owners are working toward an agreement to increase the postseason field to 10 teams this season. They had hoped to reach a deal by Thursday, but both sides said talks could continue if they needed additional time to deal with the details of adding a second wild-card team in each league.

The sides spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press because the talks have not been public.

If there had been additional wild-card teams last season, the Braves would have made the playoffs in the NL, while the Boston Red Sox would have qualified in the AL. Instead, each missed the postseason by a game, both going down with historic September swoons.

“I would’ve taken it last year,” Atlanta manager Fredi Gonzalez said Thursday.

The sides have said for weeks a deal is likely. When players and owners signed their agreement for a new labor contract in November, the section covering the postseason established a March 1 goal for deciding whether the playoffs would increase by two teams for 2012 or 2013.

The deal would establish a new one-game, wild-card round in each league between the teams with the best records who are not division winners, meaning a third-place team could win the World Series.

Don’t count on it, said Braves pitcher Tim Hudson.

The wild-card winner would face a major disadvantage going through the rest of the playoffs, according to Hudson. Last season, St. Louis passed the Braves for the wild card on the final day and went on to capture the World Series. Hudson said it would’ve been much harder for the Cardinals or the Braves to advance if they had played an extra game against each other first.

“The only good thing about it is one more team (in each league) gets in the playoffs,” he said. “But it totally handicaps the wild-card team. Both teams will probably have to expend their best pitcher to win that game. Plus, it’s another day they have to use their bullpen. Even if you get by that one game, the chances of winning the next round are not very good.”

VARITEK SAYS GOODBYE TO BOSTON:Jason Varitek spent 15 seasons as the stoic center of the Boston Red Sox, with an icy stare that never blinked and an iron jaw that never quivered.

The toughness and tenacity that defined his career and galvanized the Red Sox back to the top of the baseball world finally gave way on Thursday night, when the Captain bid farewell.

With his wife and three daughters by his side, and his parents and dozens of teammates watching from just a few feet away, an emotional Varitek officially announced his retirement.

“My teammates,” Varitek said, his voice shaking and his eyes welling, are “what I’m going to miss most. The hardest thing to do is to walk away from your teammates and what they’ve meant to you over the years.”

He caught four no-hitters, played in three All-Star games, won two championship rings and had one memorable run-in with Yankees star Alex Rodriguez that will endear him to Boston sports fans forever.

“You have not only been our captain, you have been our rock,” Red Sox chairman Tom Werner said. “You have personified the rugged, aggressive, fiercely competitive style of play that has characterized our club during your tenure.”

STEINBRENNER LOOKING TO LOWER YANKEES’ PAYROLL: New York Yankees managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner wants to lower the team’s payroll to $189 million over the next few years.

Under baseball’s new labor contract, the luxury tax threshold will be at $189 million after the 2013 season. By getting under the threshold, the Yankees would be eligible to get some of their revenue-sharing money back.

“Is it a requirement with baseball that we hit 189? No, it’s not a requirement, but that is going to be the luxury tax threshold and that’s where I want to be,” Steinbrenner said Thursday. “I don’t think it’s an unrealistic goal. My goals are normally considered a requirement.”

Steinbrenner said this season’s payroll is around $210 million. He thinks the Yankees can be successful at a lower level with a strong player-development system.

The Yankees were hit with a $13.9 million luxury tax last season. New York’s final 2011 payroll was $212.7 million for the luxury tax, which uses average annual values of contracts on the 40-man roster and includes benefits. Using salaries and prorated shares of signing bonuses, the Yankees were at $216 million.

“I’m just not convinced we need to be as high as we’ve been in the past to field a championship-caliber team,” Steinbrenner said. “We’ll see who comes off (salary-wise) in the next couple years.”

CARDS GIVE MOLINA HUGE EXTENSION: The St. Louis Cardinals made certain another big star did not get away.

Four-time Gold Glove catcher Yadier Molina agreed to a five-year, $75 million contract Thursday that kicks in next season and will keep him in St. Louis through the 2017 season. The deal makes Molina, long known for his premier defense and with a much improved bat, the second-highest paid catcher in the majors.

Unlike Molina’s close friend Albert Pujols, who bolted for a 10-year, $240 million deal with Anaheim in December, the Cardinals stepped up before another of their cornerstone players entered the final year of his contract. Chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. called Molina a “franchise-type player.”

The total price tag could easily top $90 million over seven seasons with Molina due to make $7 million this year and a mutual, $15 million option for 2018. The deal trails only the Twins’ Joe Mauer (eight years, $184 million) among catchers.

Molina batted .305 in 2011 with 14 home runs and 65 RBIs, and added 12 RBIs during the team’s World Series title run. He’s been durable, too, averaging 138 games the last three seasons.